Mah Jongg Instructions & FAQs

Mah Jongg is a game of strategy and requires the ability to shift between two or more possible solutions to a problem. A bit of luck also helps! It can be somewhat addictive — you have been warned!

The Mah Jongg instructional tutorial is shown below. Just click on the link. These instructions are based on the American version of Mah Jongg which contains Jokers. In order to win the game, one player must accumulate the 14 tiles required to make one of the sequences (or hands) shown on the card which is available from the National Mah Jongg League.

Here is a one-page Help Sheet that you may want to keep handy while you are learning. I have taught many players who seemed to have difficulty with certain aspects of the game, so I created this sheet to help them.

One of my readers created a compact “cheat sheet” to help beginners, modifying my Help Sheet above. This card can be printed, back-to-back, on 8-1/2″ x 14″ paper. Thanks to Anita Mullen for this great idea!

Santa Maria, California: Donna Eschen runs a very popular Mah Jongg group at the Elwin Mussel Senior Center which recently held a tournament raising over $4,000 for the Special Olympics. Click here to read an article about their group and click here to see pictures from their fundraiser.

If other MJ groups have pictures or articles they would like to share on this website, contact me at info@ateacherfirst.com.

Pocket Guide for Beginner Bridge

A sampling of comments sent to me by email:

“Of all the articles and books that I have read, this is by far the clearest.” from Key Largo, FL, USA

“I would like to thank you for your super job of teaching a difficult game like bridge to beginners in a very simple and efficient way. Finally, I can understand how to play bridge without expensive courses or books.” from Milan, Italy

“Your lessons are great for a beginner player.” from Cincinnati, OH, USA